Spinal Cord Injuries clinical trials at UCSF 2 in progress, 1 open to new patients

This study evaluates invasive deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of three types of chronic neuropathic pain, i) Post Stroke pain syndrome ii) Phantom Limb pain and iii) Spinal Cord Injury Pain. Participants will be implanted with recording / stimulation electrodes in pain-related circuits of the brain. Relief of pain symptoms with stimulation will be studied in both groups. It is hypothesized that neural signals will correlate with pain states and that DBS can disrupt these pain states in both groups, perhaps with differences in underlying neural mechanisms for pain relief.

This study will determine the effectiveness of tele-psychology in treating persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) with depressed mood in the early period post-rehabilitation discharge. Depression among individuals with SCI is the most common psychological condition following an injury; 22% of civilians with SCI and 28% of veterans with SCI experience depression after injury, which is higher than the able-bodied population (Williams 2015; Ullrich 2014). Individuals with SCI face many barriers in receiving psychotherapy, such as lack of accessible transportation, unfamiliarity with community resources, or stigma associated with seeking treatment for depression, which this project aims to address. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which helps people develop different ways of thinking and behaving to reduce their psychological distress, will be provided via iPad FaceTime by a psychologist with expertise in working with persons with SCI. The objectives of the proposed project are to reduce depressive symptoms, decrease associated symptoms of anxiety, and to improve satisfaction with life with CBT provided via tele-psychology. The secondary objective is to show intermediate efficacy of tele-psychology in persons with SCI with depressed mood.